UPDATED: Jon Stanhope has helpfully pointed out that these rather strange arrangements will let Zed take credit for pretty much anything while leaving others to do the hard yakka:

“Opposition Leader Zed Seselja has dealt himself a light hand in the division of portfolio responsibilities amongst his Liberal team, cementing the reputation he developed last term for being the most work-shy Liberal in the Assembly.

It is becoming commonplace to split climate change and environment/conservation – I don’t agree with it.

The Liberals have found an even more perplexing approach – splitting environment and conservation! Huh?

And housing and housing afforability are two different things. Huh??

And transport planning and transport services are different things. Huh?

I think there is enough to get on top of in the ACT portfolios, without such arbitrary and – well – weird splitting of heavily related topics. And it makes it a nightmare for someone in the community to hook into the right person…

On the Green/Labor side …………..same old same old. Now I agree they are somewhat limited because the voters did not inject new talent into the ALP. But the factional system only allowed a repeat of the same (with Gallager coming in for the kill on Stanhope by taking Treasury). Hargreaves for goodness sake…… a drunk driver in charge of correctional services. One of the other two air thieves (Porter / Birch) could have done an equally incompetent job. but at least something new.

Yep, I reckon Hanson will be leader before long. He’s personable and has more gravitas than Zed.

Quick on his feet too: while campaigning in Weston Creek he asked me if I would a brochure: I pointed out that I was wearing a “Cuba” t-shirt with a red star and hinted that my political persuasions might lie elsewhere. His response?

This also allows Governments and oppositions to move bits into new departments as per their policy priorities (eg climate change could be either part of Urban Services & Utilities or Treasury and Economy depending on the focus of the Government of the day.). There is also sufficient similarity to get some level of efficiency

Stanhope calling ANYONE lazy is also a joke. Having worked with the last three CM’s – by FAR the least energetic and energised. Also has the personality of a mashed pea.

To me, it seems that the portfolios of the opposition party are really quite irrelevant, since they don’t have the reins of power.

On a more fundamental note, I think that the ACT has/had a golden opportunity to implement a genuine system of democracy where citizens can vote on issues rather than on personalities to “represent” them. I like what they do at the cantonal level in Switzerland in terms of putting issues to the people in numerous local referenda instead of letting party politics play any part. Over there, the parliamentarians are only elected to formulate ideas for the good of the canton or country, and then to implement them responsibly. Giving politicians free reign to make decisions on our behalf is like giving a monkey a gun.

Given Seselja is the only Liberal MLA with legal qualifications (BA LLB), why wouldn’t he retain the Shadow Attorney-General role? It doesn’t make sense giving that to Dunne. Brendan Smyth has the busiest set of responsibilities (Shadow treasury, economic development, business, & tourism)and will play a key role in estimates/budget tactics. One thing observers at the Assembly point out is that Smyth always puts in. Frankly Stanhope is right. Seselja’s workload is pretty light. As mentioned in other posts Seselja developed a reputation in his first 3 years for taking it easy. He avoided weekend events(a must for any politician in Canberra trying to build support). He is now on the big money (over $200K package). Let’s see whether he has developed a work ethic. If he takes his foot off the pedal, and attempts to coast, the Liberals should move him on. They are at the political crossroads. They should have done a whole lot better in this election. Right now they need an active and strong leader who will build support and their profile across the community. But what does Seselja and his team actually stand for? They cannot run a credible superior economic manager line -that won’t work given they have largely an inexperienced team. They need to start work on 2012 now and not leave it to the last year. To that end, they need to stand for something now. Other than the stamp duty measure what was their other stand out message in the recent election? The fact is they hoped anti Stanhope sentiment would get them over the line. That was policy laziness of the worst kind. Have they actually learnt from the 2008 campaign?

The only hope now for the Liberals is to put someone strong in charge. Someone who is not going to put up with petty factional squabbles ( a bit like Stanhope who pretty much lauds over his mob with an iron hand thus averts any real intra party squabbles).

It may be Hanson. if so, he should be shoring up support for a takeover in roughly two years time.

Until then they will remain an irrelevant bunch of dispirit individuals.

barking toad: your comment reminds me of a radio broadcast I heard some years ago in which the leader of the nationalist Hindu party said “Democracy is leadership by a pack of fools”.

Not sure I agree with that because the evidence shows otherwise. Regardless of whether you like Zed, John, or the Greens – they are going to be pushing their own political agendas, not necessarily anything you’ve voted them in for or had a say in. Conversely, in an issues-based democracy (eg Switzerland) the decision on whether to build a new highway or a new commuter railway to a new suburb rests with the people affected (via a referendum). It seems to work very well, and in this day and age, electronic voting seems to make it cheap and easy to do.

About Jeremy Hanson:Quick on his feet too: while campaigning in Weston Creek he asked me if I would a brochure: I pointed out that I was wearing a “Cuba” t-shirt with a red star and hinted that my political persuasions might lie elsewhere. His response? “Comrade, would you like a brochure?”

Seriously, if the opposition couldn’t win after Stanhope let Canberra burn down, and again when pretty much three quarters of the population hated him, then they have no chance.

A broad broom needs to be swept through the Liberal party if they are to ever challenge for government in this territory.

Thumper, the election campaign was woeful. I think they rested on the fact that stanhope was so hated in the community. oh, well, now we have labor back, and we will have to live with it for 4 years. The Libs have no-one to blame but themselves. The negative ads did nothing. some sort of policies would have made the difference.